Tensilica Licensees Ship Two Billion IP Cores; License Revenue Now Larger than Any Other DSP Licensing Company

Update: Cadence Completes Acquisition of Tensilica (Apr 24, 2013)

Run Rate of 800 Million Cores a Year is up 50 Percent Over 2011

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – October 10, 2012 –Tensilica, Inc. today announced that its licensees have recorded shipments of over two billion Tensilica DPUs (dataplane processor units). Tensilica’s licensees are now shipping at a run rate of approximately 800 million Tensilica DPU IP cores per year, which is more than a 50 percent increase over the run rate announced in June 2011, when the company reached its one billionth core shipment (see press release).

Tensilica also announced that license revenue for the previous four quarters (ending June 30, 2012) has continuously surpassed that of any other DSP (digital signal processor) IP licensing companies by an average margin of 25 percent.

“IP companies get revenue from two sources: licensing and royalties,” stated J. Scott Gardner, senior analyst at The Linley Group. “Licensing revenue is a leading indicator of future royalty revenue. Often it takes two to three years for royalties to come in after a new design license is signed. So this rise in licensing revenue bodes well for future royalty revenue for Tensilica.”

“Our growth has exceeded our plans and we reached the two billion milestone a quarter ahead of our projections,” stated Jack Guedj, Tensilica’s president and CEO. “Similarly, we’ve seen continuing and sustained increases in license revenues as more and more tier 1 semiconductor and systems companies adopt our DPU/DSP products. Our growth is due to the fact our DPUs provide better performance/power/area than classic DSPs and are scalable from function-specific micro signal and control processors to large general-purpose DSPs.”

Tensilica attributes the growth in unit shipments to new designs ramping to volume production in smartphones, digital televisions, tablets, personal and notebook computers, and storage and networking applications. To see some of the products currently shipping that include Tensilica’s DPUs, please see Tensilica’s web site.

While Tensilica provides design tools that allow for fast click-button configuration or customization of processor cores, the company also offers standard DPUs/DSPs for audio and baseband signal processing. Tensilica’s HiFi Audio/Voice solution has become the de facto standard audio offload engine for SOC (system on chip) design. Tensilica’s HiFi IP cores support over 100 optimized software packages and have now been licensed to over 50 companies (see press release).

Tensilica’s DPUs are also leading new baseband modem designs in multi-standard 3G/HSPA+, LTE and LTE-Advanced, DTV demodulation, advanced WiFi and smart grid communications. Tensilica currently leads the market in the shipment of licensed IP cores designed for 4G LTE/LTE-A functions.

About Tensilica

Tensilica, Inc. is the leader in dataplane processor IP cores, with almost 200 licensees. Dataplane processors (DPUs) combine the best capabilities of DSPs and CPUs while delivering 10 to 100x the performance because they can be optimized using Tensilica’s automated design tools to meet specific and demanding signal processing performance targets. Tensilica’s DPUs power SOC designs at system OEMs and seven out of the top 10 semiconductor companies for designs in mobile wireless, telecom and network infrastructure, computing and storage, and home and auto entertainment. Tensilica offers standard cores and hardware/software subsystem solutions that can be used as is or easily customized by semiconductor companies and OEMs for added differentiation. For more information on Tensilica’s patented, benchmark-proven DPUs visit www.tensilica.com.